The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1920. THE PRINCE OF WALES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10607, 4 June 1920, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1920. THE PRINCE OF WALES

That the Prince of Wale's is a man, in the beet sense of the word, all who have mot him have, with one exception, recognised. The exception is the section of the Imperial (Government which marked out hie tour for him. This section, to judge by the programme it imposed on the Prince, regards him as a machine, in a quite new guise of the word. Hitherto machines have been regarded as requiring motive power, fuel, and lubrication, and some rest. But the new view in Downing street is that a machine requires nothing: that it is a thing of perennial strength, tough to resist every degree of pressure, of an endurance equal to ceaseless work without replenishment of strength. On this understanding of his nature and qualities, the Prince’s itinerary was mapped out for him. On the face of it, the task imposed on him was exacting enough to he almost superhuman. But the time-limit removed the qualification, turning, the “almost” into “absolutely.” Hints of this started with the Prince’s voyage. As soon os the programme was published it arrested disquieted attention. The programme looked uncommonly li,ke a revelation of the impossible. It changed the tour into a scurry. The Governor of Alabama, who complained to his inhospitable host that it was a long time between drinks, was matched through this programme by a Prince with abundant provocation for protest against having no time at all between either drinks or functions. At Panama the Prince was, in accordance with this programme, raced through the tropical hours with one eye on tho next figure swiftly duo. At Honolulu he came out of the cooling, surf to resume his nightmare of tho Flying Dutchman. After leaving Suva, the resuming nightmare got such a hold that tho Prince’s ship wan forced to extend herself to the utmost possible speed against a hurricane. In New Zealand the slight hitch of the railway difficulty threatened the whole crazy tour, and made timid people hear tho shocks of sections of the trip smashing each other up. The New Zealand section Was negotiated eventually, but only because the star performer jettisoned part of his Flying Dutchman programme. People who saw the fatigue of the Prince during that almost frenzied journey wondered what kind of people they could be who had imposed that strain of perpetual motion upon n young man still some distance from his prime. They wondered why this insane hurry; they wondered if the hurry would get through tho programme; they wondered at last whether the victim of -the official calculation which classed him among th© stones and metals of the world could survive much more. This last fear has been realised in Victoria. After another storm of the sea, th© Prince encountered tho usual storm of tho programme, and the effect on him was so had that medical science had to intervene with the export declaration that the Prince, notwithstanding the era m, stupid decision of statesmen of Imperial rank, is just a man, of flesh and blood and nerves just like any other man. But for this merciful intervention the story would have ended like Hood’s story of “Mies Kilmansogg and Tier Precious Log.” This lady, it will be remembered, having suffered amputation, was provided with a cork Substitute quite as good as the limb of nature; in fact, better in one respect, for it was supplied with a motor attachment. When tho lady touched the spring the motor took a grip, the cork leg burst into a series of tremendous bounds,. and great was tho pride of Miss Jvilmansegg, as groat as the wonder of the citizens in tho streets over her precious leg. But’ this was changed very quickly to self-lamentation in tho lady and mourning in the public, for tho lady could not stop the fiery motor, and her awful pace prevented anybody from approaching with help. The result, if wo remember right, was that Miss Kilmansogg speedily died, and her precious leg is still bounding frantically through space, dragging her bleaching hones after it with a roar and a rattle that keeps the entire world in terror. This is tho fate to which Downing street, in emulation of tho doctors who prescribed too well for the late Miss Kiltnnnscgg, condemned the popular Prince of Wales. Let us all be thankful that the faculty in Melbourne rescued him in time by stopping tho horrible motor attached to him by Downing street in the shape of a programme. Let us be thankful that tho programme did not turn into a pogrom. And let ua hope that when anv Prince

travels again, Downing street will give him decent time to get round the earth. Let us hope, also, that the Oversea Dominions will not put too much into the sections of the programme allotted to them.